Rantings Of A Media Titan Takes On: Client Mistrust Part 2

In the last post I talked about a client that tends to micro-manage and this morning he has really gone beyond the boundaries of what a business should expect from their consultant. Being a small business owner is difficult and stressful, this I understand. What I don’t understand is why he feels it is necessary to call me at 6 am this morning, expecting me to answer the phone and leave a nasty VM because I was not working on his time schedule for their newest marketing project yet (They have expanded from flipping condos with a few rentals to adding quite few more rentals to their books and thus becoming a property management company that markets other owner’s properties as well.)

Granted I let most clients know that many times I will be working either early in the morning or late at night and if I am doing so when they attempt to reach me, then I am more than happy to work with them outside the normal business hours. But there is simply no call for him to curse at me and leave such a long, nasty VM. This is just disrespectful. It is not like we talked yesterday and I agreed to be available this morning at 6 am. There is no specific deadline to meet, we are still brain storming on the type of image we want to project in order to help them rent more properties.

understandably, the current economic situation is affecting the local, luxury rental market and these clients are attempting to rebrand their company in order to attract a new clientage. We have worked with this company for a number of years now and you would think they knew how good our work ethic is here at Ardynn Media Group. But because I have worked with some very odd hours with most clients, this one in particular, he has made the assumption that they are paying for me to be at his beck and call (I say him, because I typically handle this account and deal with him on a regular basis). They are paying a consulting fee to Ardynn Media Group for our TEAM to direct their marketing, technology and social efforts.

The lesson here is that respect should be shown by all sides at all times in order for ANY working relationship to be successful. In this instance, the level of disrespect required that immediate action be taken as one should be extremely careful of what is being said because when leaving a message there is no delete button.

In this case, I spoke with my partner (after we both had listened to the VM a few times) and the decision was made that we needed to part with this client. So, my partner returned his call and requested that he bring his partner, meaning the other owner, on to the call as a conference call. He then proceeded to tell them that due to the level of disrespect that was shown this morning we were sending them our 30 day written notice today and their contract with Ardynn Media Group was being cancelled. He also stressed that they needed to notify their entire executive management team about this decision.